Be transported to a new dimension with Luke Jaaniste’s ‘Mesmerism’.
Sonic artist and music composer Luke Jaaniste is opening the doors and letting people enter his world of ‘Mesmerism’ as part of the Summer Festival at the Judith Wright Centre. Curating a series of events over two days, Luke will use his performance installations to put people’s bodies into a trance using a range of vibrations, sounds and lighting.
'Mesmerism' will kick-off on the Friday night, where Luke invites guests to relax before entering his world. “We’ve set up a big performance theatre, which is a big, dark cabinet with cushions on the ground. I don’t believe in chairs for my work. People can sit, lie down or walk around… People need to feel comfy and feel that they can explore all the ways their body might want to be.
“This is almost like the best experience you could have in your lounge room but having it in a massive space with sounds that are pretty unique and presented with a sound system and instruments that you’re never going to get anywhere else.”Joining Luke will be fellow Sydney artist, Michaela Davies. “She works with the muscle stimulus pads; little wide circle pads that stick on your arm which – with a little electricity jolts in the exactly right spot – can make your arms move without having any control. So you become this human puppet and she sets it up so that your arms just vibrate uncontrollably.”
Afterwards, guests will be immersed by the sound-artist’s ‘Trance-Piano' project. “I’ll play the piano with quadraphonic amplification. The piano will be in the middle of the room in the dark. I’ll even hang the microphones down which means people can even lie underneath the piano. A few of my friends have described it as 'it's like the whole sonic universe is crushing your chest, but somehow you want to keep listening'. It’s like you’re captivated by this glorious black hole of sound.”
Then Saturday will be the night of Luke’s 'Portal' project; an immersive audio experience created by a combination of vintage keyboards and swirling electric guitars. “I’ve got a dozen or more of the same keyboards [that I’ll play]. They are slightly out of tune and slightly out of time. That sort of cheesy ‘duh-duh-duh’ pattern turns into this hypnotic fractural orchestra, because all of those patterns keep circulating and circulating in and out around them... Basically it is my personal goal to get into a trance and guide everyone else into one; get really quite emotionally feral while creating these large-scale experiences.”
As much as it is a captivating audio-visual experience, Luke wants people to leave being more in touch with their bodies. “It’s a new way of getting in touch with what has always been there; our vibrational bodies. We do it in a new way and it can be freshly captivating. So people who know about ambient music, minimalist art installations, or people who know about rave parties or trance music can come and get a sense of that. It’s a fresh take on all of those things. People are invited into a new way of feeling your own body. I want to present something that’ll surprise people in a beautiful way.”
'Mesmerism' is on at the Judith Wright Centre, 20-21 February.
